Tag: Dairy free

Baked Quinoa Oat Square

I remembered how my kids turned their nose to the baked quinoa the first time. Afterwards, I hesitated over whether or not to try different recipes. But I still sneaked in some cooked quinoa into muffins, cookies and bread from time to time. This morning I was tired of seeing leftover quinoa (from yesterday’s lunch) and blackberry chia jam (from the other day) sitting inside the refrigerator and decided to use them all. This is how I came up with these squares…

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked organic quinoa

1 cup organic oat flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoon honey or maple syrup

3/4 cup organic unsweetened apple sauce

About 1 cup blackberry chia jam (see note)

First, line the Pyrex 8×8″ glass bakeware with parchment paper and lightly brush the parchment paper with a little bit of avocado oil. Second, preheat the oven to 350F.

In a bowl, combine the quinoa, oat flour, cinnamon, and baking powder. Stir in honey and apple sauce. The mixture resembled sticky pancake batter.

Layer about 2/3 of the batter into the bakeware and flatten it with a spatula. Then spread the jam and layer the remanning batter. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove the parchment paper and leave the baked quinoa on the cooling rack. Wait until it’s completely cool down and slice to your preferred size. I cut mine into 16 squares.

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These quinoa oat squares weren’t very sweet, just my personal preference. You can definitely add more honey or maple syrup for a sweeter version. They are perfect for breakfast as well as snack on the go. I kept them in the refrigerator afterwards since the temperature suddenly went up to 90 in my neighborhood.

Note:

I used white quinoa and cooked them according to the instruction. I also grinded the rolled oats in the food processor to make oat flour.

Blackberry chia jam:

About 15 oz blackberries or berries of your preferrence

7-8 chopped pitted dates

2-3 tablespoon chia seeds

In a small sauce pan, add blackberries and chopped dates and simmer in the lowest flame for about 30 minutes. After turning off
the stove, I just used a fork to break the berries apart and added chia seeds. The jam wasn’t very sweet. You can adjust the sweeteness to your preference.

For leftover jam, my daughter happily mixed them with a Stonyfield grass fed plain yogurt and 1 tablespoon of honey, and poured the mixture into the ice pop mold. After dinner, she was proud to show and happily ate her ice pop with a big smile^^.

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Sweet potato crackers

My kids are big fans of sweet potatoes. So I made these sweet potato crackers for their snacks from time to time. Today I used two different flour mix and put in extra effort by cutting one dough into bear shapes to surprise my daughter^^.

Sweet potato oat crackers

Ingredients:

3/4 cup roasted Korean sweet potato purée (see note)

3/4 – 1 cup organic oat flour (see note)

1 tablespoon grounded organic golden flaxseed (optional)

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon organic extra virgin olive oil (optional)

1/2 – 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Sweet potato buckwheat crackers

Ingredients:

3/4 cup roasted Korean sweet potato purée

3/4 cup buckwheat pancake mix (see note)

1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

1 tablespoon organic extra virgin olive oil (optional)

1/2 – 1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a bowl, add all ingredients for oat crackers and combine them with your hand. Knead gently to bring the dough together into a soft and smooth ball. Same for buckwheat crackers.
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The key to crispy crackers is to roll the dough as thin as possible. If you have a pasta making machine and time, you can use it to roll out the dough into the desired thickness. But I just used a rolling pin to roll out the dough on a big plastic sheet or a parchment paper. Use any cookie cutters as you desired or simply use the pizza cutter to cut the roll out dough into your desired shape.

I baked these crackers at 350F for 15 minutes, flipped them over, and bake for another 10-15 minutes until they were crispy.
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My daughter was smiling from ear to ear while eating these crackers and enjoyed all the compliments from her classmates. These crackers aren’t very sweet but perfect for snacking. You can sprinkle some raw sugar on the stop and brush some maple syrup or honey before baking if you prefer sweeter crackers. I stored these crackers in glass container but they  were gone less than a week:-).

Note:

I normally use Korean sweet potatoes that has yellow flesh and becomes so sweet and creamy after roasting. I once used the organic Japanese yam bought at whole food, but added 1 cup of flour to get to the right consistency of the dough.

I grind my own oat flour in the food processor. And I use bob’s red mill organic buckwheat pancake mix. You can substitute it with a mix of buckwheat and whole wheat pastry flour with 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.

 

 

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Beetroot mini muffin

Ever since my last baking adventure of beetroot, I shy away from them just because I personally don’t like their earthy smell and/or taste. However, when my daughter came along with my weekly grocery shopping at Whole foods last Thursday, she saw them and asked about Chocolate beetroot cake from one of my prior postings. I couldn’t say no and therefore we went back home with a medium-sized, nice looking, organic beetroot. The next day, I cleaned the beetroot, wrapped it with aluminum foil, and roasted it at 350F for about a hour. When it was cooled down, I peeled off the skin and took a very tiny bite. “Uh,” I said to myself, “It tastes better and sweeter this time.” Delighted, I offered my daughter a small piece, and she swallowed it down with a smile. So I was set to fullfill her request to make the cake the next afternoon, but found out that I ran out of apple sauce. I ended up experimenting and making an easy beetroot cake which was a blessing success (as long as my kids ate it^^).
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Still, I had about some roasted beetroot left. I puréed it with 6 pitted dates, and 1/4 cup of water in the food processor this morning. Originally, I was going to make cookies. But after seeing a open bag of garbanzo bean flour, I decided to experiment with it and scooped the batter into the mini muffin tin. This is how these mini muffins were made.

Ingredients:

Roasted beetroot purée with 6 pitted dates and 1/4 cup water, about 3/4 – 1 cup

2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar

1 cup garbanzo bean flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

In a bowl, combine the beetroot purée, oil, honey, and apple cider vinegar. In the glass measuring cup, mix well the garbanzo bean flour, baking powder, and cinnamon. Add the flour mixture into the beetroot mixture, and stir to combine. The batter was a bit sticky. Used a teaspoon to scoop the batter into the greased mini muffin tin. Bake at 375 F for about 10 minutes or until the toothpick entered came out clean. I left the muffin tin on the cooling rack for a while until  I woke up my daughter (maybe 5-10 minutes?). I then took them out.
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I enjoy making socca bread with diced kimchi, but have never tried garbanzo bean flour in baking sweets. I was surprised to find out that these mini muffins tasted delicious with a caky texture. They puffed nicely with a gorgeous red color. They are also gluten free, dairy free, and sugar free. My daughter had three of them for breakfast and another three for after dinner dessert ^^. Thanks to my daughter, this recipe is definitely a keeper!

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Pumpkin steel cut oat square

Every time I went to Costco, I always ended up buying unnecessary stuff. No wonder there’s no sign of direction inside the store. Their design is to make you walk around the store. The more you browse, the more you buy… This explained how the bag of dates sat in my pantry.

Anyhow, I was soaking steel cut oats last night. Suddenly, I remembered reading soaking dates in water for a day to make date syrup on the web. So I dropped about 7 of them in the same bowl that I soaked steel cut oats. This morning, I changed my mind. I wanted to bake steel cut oats so that my son can bring them as snacks. Looking around, the banana weren’t ripe enough for baking. Neither do I have apple sauce. Then, I saw a canned of organic pumpkin purée and smiled.

ingredients:

1 1/2 cup quick cooking steel cut oats (see note)

7 dates

1 1/2 cup hot water

1 cup canned pumpkin purée

1-2 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg

2 tablespoon organic chia seeds

2 tablespoon organic sunflower seeds

1/4 cup no sugar added organic raisins

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup for vegan

The night before, added oats, dates and hot water in a big glass bowl. Since it’s still cold in east coast, I just left the bowl on the kitchen countertop overnight.

The next morning, mesh the dates with a fork. Then, add the rest ingredients in the same bowl. Stir them well and pour the mixture in parchment paper lined glass bakeware (I used Pyrus 7″X11″). Bake at 375F for about 30 minutes. Be careful not overbake them or the oats will turn hard and chewy (that my kids dislike).

Wait until the oats are completely cool. Cut them in generous 12 pieces and enjoy! They are soft but hold their own shapes. Since I used canned pumpkin purée, they weren’t as sweet as those I roasted in the oven (I tasted). Therefore, I added 1/4 cup honey to satisfy my kids’ sweet tooth:-). I couldn’t add nuts due to the allergy concern at kids’ school. But feel free to add dried fruits/nuts/seeds of your preference. They are healthy and delicious, a perfect way to start your morning.
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Note:

I used Bob’s Red Mill organic quick cooking steel cut oats. You may need to adjust the amount of liquid if using other brands or non quick cooking oats. Also, you may need to adjust the amount of liquid if adding more dried fruits/seeds/nuts.

 

 

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tapioca bread

Ever since I bought a bag of tapioca flour to make pearls used in the bubble tea, I have always wanted to bake Brazilian cheese bread. So this morning I modified this recipe and made a sweet version by using roasted Japanese yam.

ingredients:

2 cup tapioca flour

2 teaspoon baking powder

2 teaspoon cinnamon

2 tablespoon chia seeds (optional)

3 small Japanese yams, roasted and meshed about 2 cups (see note)

2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon hot water (about 190 F)

In a bowl, combine tapioca flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and chia seeds if using. Pour in hot water. The flour mixture will turn hard but should be still wet. Fold in meshed yam slowly with a spatula. Then, I just used my hand to roll the mixture into the size of golf ball. I got about 28 of them. It’s ok that they were not in perfectly round shape (just look at mine><).
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Bake at 410F for about 20-25 minutes. These bread puffed just a little and tasted a lot like Japanese mochi but not as chewy. I used Japanese yam to replace sugar in these bread (you can still see small pieces of yam outside and inside), but they were sweet enough to our taste. I also added chia seeds to boost the nutrition and the fiber. These were so easy to make and simply good eats.
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Note:

I used Bob’s Red Mill tapioca flour.

I wrapped these small Japanese yams (the yellow flesh kind) with aluminum foil and roasted them at 350F for about 50 minutes. After they cooled down completely, I peeled them and meshed them with a fork. They were very sweet and creamy but not as moist as roasted sweet potatoes. Depending on the moisture level of the type of sweet potatoes/yam you use, you may need to adjust the amount of water.

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Steel cut granola bars

Ever since I bought a HUGE bag of Bob’s Red Mill organic quick cooking steel cut oats from Costco, I have been making a lot of oatmeal and incorporating them into my baking (muffins, crackers, cookies, brownies, you name it).
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Adding them into home made granola bars is a no brainer. They are healthy, nutrious, and delicious. This recipe is so versatile that you can use any dried fruits, seeds, and/or nuts of your preference. Most important, they are super easy to make (almost fool prove).

ingredients:

3 small size ripe bananas, meshed about 1 cup or unsweetened apple sauce

1 1/2 cup pre-soaked quick cooking steel cut oats (see note)

3-4 tablespoon chia seeds (see note)

3 tablespoon pumpkin seeds

3 tablespoon sunflower seeds

1-2 teaspoon cinnamon or spice of your preference

1/4 – 1/2 cup no sugar added organic raisins

1/4 cup pecans or walnuts

1/4 cup honey or maple syrup for vegan (optional)

In a big bowl, meshed banana with a fork. Add the rest of ingredients and mix them well. I used a Pyrex 2.2 Qt oblong glass container (about 7″X11″) and lined with parchment paper. Pull in the mixture and smooth it with a spatula. Bake at 375F for 30-35 minutes. I normally turned it over on the cooling rack and then took off the parchment paper. After it’s completely cool, cut it to 16 pieces (my son already finish 4 pieces^^). Store them in a glass container and enjoy them within 3 days if they last that long.
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Note:

I normally soaked 1 1/2 cup quick cooking steel cut oats with 1-1 1/4 cup water and a teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar overnight. After soaking, they could be measured to over 2 cups. I used only 1 1/2 cups in this recipe and kept the rest for something else. Sometimes, I swapped 1/4 – 1/2 cup oats with cooked quinoa if I have leftover. If I feel that the mixture is too watery, I add more chia seeds. For nut free version, use more seeds and/or dried fruits.

I also found them sweet enough to my taste without adding honey/maple syrup since ripe bananas are very sweet.

 

 

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Crust less sweet potato pie

I always joke that I can be a vegan if I can quit drinking wine. After putting my daughter to bed during the week or the weekend night, I would have a glass of wine while catching up news or watching movies. It’s sort of my way of slowing down from the fast-moving day and relaxing. But then, I get into this bad habit, snacking while drinking. These past few days, I have tried to steel away from mindless snacking at night. While I was checking inside the refrigerator for dinner idea yesterday afternoon, I saw the two peeled roasted sweet potatoes from the other day. I decided to bake this crust less sweet potato pie. As always, baking makes me happy and this healthy dessert after dinner helped me feel full and satisfied.

Ingredients:

2 to 3 roasted sweet potatoes, peeled and meshed with a fork, about 2 cups (see note)

3/4 cup water or milk of your preference (see note)

2 tablespoon grounded flaxseed or chia seeds

1-2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/2 cup buckwheat flour (see note)

1/4 cup organic sugar in the raw turbinado sugar or more to your preference

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup pecan (optional)

In the food processor, add roasted sweet potatoes, chia seeds or flaxseeds if using, pipkin pie spice, and water. Purée for a minute or two until the mixture resembles pancake batter texture (see below picture). If the mixture is too dry, add 1 tablespoon of liquid a time.
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In a glass measure cup, combine buckwheat flour, sugar and baking powder. I used a Pyrus 9.5″ pie plate and didn’t bother to grease it. Pour in the sweet potatoes mixture first and then the flour mixture. Gently fold them together and sprinkle the top with roughly chopped pecan. Bake at 350F for about 50 minutes. I let it cool down on the dinning table.
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After dinner, I can’t wait to cut myself a slice. It slided out nicely. But it’s moist and creamy. It’s not very sweet but the pumpkin pie spice compensate the sweetness. I wanted to savor every single bite but found myself quickly finish the whole slice and went for the second. Omg. Who is the one trying to stop overeating?
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We finished the leftover today. The pie is as good as it was yesterday. Yummy!

Note:

I have made this pie couple times. Make sure that you roast the sweet potatoes on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil at 350F for about one hour. You want the roasted sweet potato on the dry side. Therefore, the sweet potato mixture won’t be too watery.

I used Arrowhead mills buckwheat flour. I have also made this pie with koda farm mochiko flour and 1% organic milk (substitute non-dairy milk for vegan). My kids like the chewy texture from the mochiko flour. But I like the buckwheat version.

I also prefer using golden ground flaxseed for smoother texture. But I ran out of it yesterday and used chia seeds instead.

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Adzuki bean coconut muffin

Every time that my girl friends asked for my baking recipes, I always hesitated. Not only that home cooking is always a mix bag of what’s left and/ or around, but also that I rarely took down exact measurements especially when I baked in the early morning. But yesterday morning, I was somehow up so early and had plenty of time to mix and match:-). These muffins were easy to make and delicious.

ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 cup quick cooking oats

1/4 cup grounded golden flaxseed

1/2 cup coconut flakes

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 cup organic raw sugar or more to your preference (see note)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup cooked adzuki beans, meshed with fork (see note)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

3/4 cup water

In a big bowl, combine all ingredients except the beans, oil and water. Then, add the rest and stir. The batter shouldn’t be runny. I used a teaspoon to scoop up the batter into lightly greased 24 mini muffin tin and divided the rest batter into three large muffin liners (a bit jittery but holds its own). Bake mini ones at 350F for about 10-15 minutes and large ones for about 20-25 minutes.

These muffins were lightly sweet with a hint of coconut. The oats and flaxseeds add a bit nutty and chewy texture. They are healthy and hearty and perfect for breakfast. My son quickly popped six of them into his mouth before catching up his school bus:-).

We had some leftover this morning too, and they weren’t dry at all.
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Note:

I use mostly organic ingredients. But organic sugar in the raw turbinado cane sugar really adds good flavor in baked goods.

I soaked organic adzuki beans overnight and cooked them with a lot of water as I liked to serve them as sweet dessert soup. The cooked adzuki beans were not drained completely. Therefore, you may need to add more water if using canned beans. I also meshed them with a fork, and therefore you can still see them in small pieces here and there.

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banana cookies

These were really out of nowhere..

I promised my daughter to make treats for her to bring to Chinese school this afternoon. But I couldn’t make up my mind, either making mini muffins or cookies><. So I ended up meshing ripe banana, adding some apple sauce (to conceal the banana taste and smell), and this and that. As the result, these were chewier than muffins, but softer than cookies. These were really quick, healthy and kids’ friendly treats except those Sweethearts… Oh, well. It’s Valentine’s Day. Plus, my daughter had fun making them with me and claimed the ownership of them all afterwards:-).

ingredients:

1 medium ripe banana

1 teaspoon organic vanilla extract

3 tablespoon organic unsweetened apple sauce

1 tablespoon avocado oil

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt (optional)

1 cup organic quick cooking oats

3 tablespoon organic raw sugar

In a bowl, meshed the banana with a fork.

Added the vanilla extract, apple sauce, and avocado oil, and mix well.

Folded in the flour, baking soda, salt if using, oats, and sugar.

The batter was quite sticky. So I used a teaspoon and the fork to scoop the batter into the mini muffin tin instead of shaping them into cookies.

Baked at preheated oven 350F for 10 minutes.
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They have the mini muffin look but with the cookie taste. I couldn’t taste much of the banana in them^^. Somehow my daughter hates banana smell and taste after we moved back home. They were a bit too sweet to my taste but perfect to kids. The 3-ingredient banana cookies that I made before became a bit rubbery the next day. So I added a little bit oil to improve the taste. My daughter was smiling from ear to ear to present and share these cookies with her friends and teachers.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

 

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Chocolate beetroot cake

Every now and then, I would take my daughter to grocery shopping and let her pick one vegetable that’s unknown to her. Then, we will make the dish together at home. By doing so, she is willing to try and eat new vegetables. That’s how she fell in love with kale chips.

So last weekend, I had her pick a bunch of organic red beets at Whole foods. I sautéed beet greens with olive oil, garlic, and a tiny piece of canned sardine (for my son’s sake). My daughter was totally into it and my son also tried some. The most picky eater (aka my husband) of course turned his nose up at it><.

Monday morning, I roasted the three beetroots at 375F for about 55 minutes. Totally unprepared, I ate a slice after peeling off the skin. The earthy flavor grossed me out. No offense. It tasted like dirt to me!! I had to say no to my daughter when she asked to try a piece. I was so worried that she will hate it after I let her try without dressing it up.
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So I sliced one beetroot into strips and added them to the cauliflower fried rice. I also used sesame oil to cover up the earthy flavor. The bright pink color did make my daughter excited about eating them, but not long she started complaining about their taste… My son ate some without questioning because he was hungry after coming back from school. So that’s not a very successful attempt.
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Tuesday afternoon, I thought about my one bowl banana chocolate cake (the only way to get my daughter eat banana). So I decided to make a chocolate cake out of beetroots.

Ingredients:

1 midium size roasted beetroots (about 1 1/4 cup)

1/3 cup unsweetened apple sauce

2/3 cup water

2 tablespoons avocado oil

1 teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/4 cup of organic raisins

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 cup organic raw sugar

Add wet ingredients in the blender and blend well. I specifically smelled and tasted the mixture. The apple cider vinegar and cinnamon did cover most of beetroots’ earthy flavor ^^.

For better presentation, use a cake pan, and oil and dust the pan. I just grabbed Pyrex 9″ pie plate. Combine all dry ingredients in the plate before pouring in the wet mixture. Mix well and bake at 350F for about 50-55 minutes. I just left the cake cool down in the plate. I wished to take a better picture with camera, but not iPhone. The cake baked very well with a glossy shine on the top.
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We all had the cake as the dessert after dinner. The cake was very moist and delicious though I can still taste a bit of beetroots. My son raved about the cake and ate almost half of it. My daughter liked it too. The cake kept well in room temperature for couple days and its taste improved day after day. I had the last piece yesterday afternoon (the 3rd day), and couldn’t taste the beetroot in it.
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Being encouraged by my kids, I am now thinking to use the last roasted beetroot for morning pancakes tomorrow. Wish me good luck!

 

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